About Us

Project Maximize

Maximizing Literacy Learning Among Children With Mild to Moderate Mental Retardation (2005-09)

Project Maximize, funded in 2005 by the Office of Special Education Projects (OSEP) in the U.S. Department of Education, is a 4-year longitudinal study whose goal is to determine if what is known about teaching reading to students with reading difficulties applies to teaching students with cognitive disabilities and autism. Instruction began in the fall of 2005 in an urban school district with 137 children who are mildly or moderately mentally retarded. Half of the students were assigned to treatment or control groups; those in treatment received daily instruction in reading in small groups of 2-4 students.

Purpose

In the current research, we seek to determine if the intense and explicit instruction that has worked for children who struggle with reading, are likely dyslexic, or are English language learners also works for children who are mentally retarded. Typically these students have only been taught to read functional sight words. However, there are two components to reading: processing words in print and processing meaning from those words. This study works on both aspects.

Procedures

This study is being conducted as a randomized trial with two groups. One group of students receives a special education program that represents current best practices, which are provided by the Ft Worth schools with support from our staff. The second group of children receive the Proactive Reading intervention from highly trained teachers. Students meet daily in groups of three for 55-minute sessions across all four years of the study. Each session has three components: (1) Proactive Reading (40 minutes), an empirically proven intervention now commercially available from SRA, (2) Language Support (5 minutes) to assist these students to better understand the content presented in Proactive Reading, and (3) Oral Language Comprehension (10 minutes), which builds on empirically proven storybook routines.

To determine the impact of reading instruction as compared to “current best practice,” the study collects measures of multiple dimensions of reading and language and intellect, including measures pretest/posttest and continuous progress measures collected every 3 weeks across all 4 years. Further, we observe during experimental and contrast instruction and measure level of fidelity of the intervention at multiple points each year. Last, we collect student IEP records and conduct teacher and parent interviews to allow us to determine if our interventions facilitate access to the general education curriculum.

Presentations

Presentations (PDFs) describing aspects of Project Maximize are attached.

Video Clips

Curriculum Information/Materials

  • Foundation Level. pre-publication
    The foundation level of the curriculum teaches kindergarten-level reading skills.

  • Level One: Proactive. Published under Early Interventions in Reading through SRA
    The first level of the curriculum teaches first grade level reading skills and has been found to be effective through several research studies (link) and is available for purchase from SRA.

  • Level Two Proactive
    The second level of the curriculum teaches second through fourth grade reading skills.

  • Stop and Go Game. pre-publication
    This game teaches children to blend sounds to make words. See the attached video link of it being played. The game can be obtained via request at Maximize@smu.edu

  • Language Component. pre-publication
    This component of the curriculum was added to enhance vocabulary skills.

Press Links (PDFs)

Useful Websites

  • Reading Rockets - This project provides information and resources to teachers and parents about reading instruction to young children.
    www.ReadingRockets.org

  • SRA Publishing - Makes available direct-instruction curricula that have proven to be effective in teaching reading to struggling students.
    www.sra.com

  • Division of Developmental Disabilities - This division of the CEC provides specific support to those working with students with cognitive disabilities, autism, and other related disabilities.
    www.dddcec.org/

  • DIBELS - These assessments were used to monitor the student's progress on key reading skills. The website also provides links to good curricular activities to support reading.
    dibels.uoregon.edu/

  • Council for Exceptional Children - This professional organization is dedicated to improving educational outcomes for individuals with exceptionalities, students with disabilities, and/or the gifted. It provides information and resources for parents and teachers on issues related to policy, advocacy, and professional development.
    www.cec.sped.org

  • Project Raise - This project coordinates with Maximize. Researchers at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte are investigating teaching reading to students with moderate to severe mental retardation.
    http://education.uncc.edu/access/RAISEProject.htm

Resource Literature

  • Carnine, D. W., Silbert, J., Kameenui, E. J., & Tarver, S. G. (2004). Direct Instruction Reading. (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson

To learn more, contact:
Dr. Francesca Jones (fjones@smu.edu)